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Augmented Reality Art Takes Over The MoMA

If you’re a contemporary artist, chances are getting your work into NY’s prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of your life’s ambitions. While few will ultimately be able to capture the attention of the museum’s elite curators, all hope of seeing your work inside the white-walled galleries of MoMA is not lost. Artists and curators Sander Veenhof and Mark Skwarek are orchestrating a DIY Augmented Reality Art Invasion at MoMA on October 9th as part of Conflux Festival, a NYC festival dedicated to “art and technology for the creative exploration of urban public space.”

From the curators:Augmented Reality (AR) is the phenomenon adding virtual elements into our physical reality. These additions are viewable by pointing your contemporary smartphone to the world around you. The phone knows where you are (because of GPS) and with this data it connects to the internet to get the relevant images, visuals, 3D shapes and it puts them into your view.

‘AR’ technology allows anyone to (re-)shape anything, anywhere!

The temporary exhibition will only last a few hours (and possibly even less, considering that the project is not condoned by the MoMA itself and who’s to say how they’ll respond to the “invasion”). Anyone equipped with an iPhone or android phone sporting the popular Dutch AR application, Layar, and a handy map of the AR works scattered among MoMA’s exhibition galleries and garden can view the hidden exhibition.

And guess what, artists? You’re in luck! They’re still accepting submissions of work. Even if you aren’t accepted into the “official” non-official exhibition, you can still participate by bringing your own augmented reality art on your own device, implemented using your own application in your own format.